The good news: The Boston Celtics did not lose in overtime thanks to a never-before-called rule that had no impact on the play.

The bad news: The Celtics also did not hit a grand slam to advance to the World Series. Instead, they fell to the Minnesota Timberwolves during Sunday night preseason action in Montreal, 104-89. With one preseason game left, Boston now sits at 1-6.

The Celtics started the first quarter by essentially staggering around aimlessly for six minutes, an act that, through seven preseason games, sadly looks like a habit. Boston trailed 18-7 when head coach Brad Stevens made his first substitutions, calling on Jeff Green and Kelly Olynyk to form an interesting (and potentially mismatch-inducing) lineup.

With Green (12 points) at shooting guard, surrounded by Olynyk, Avery Bradley, Gerald Wallace and Jared Sullinger, the Celtics quickly fought back into the contest. They scored nine of the next 11 points; the run was spurred by Green, who found Bradley near the basket on one possession, exploded to his right for a layup on the next, and drilled a 3-pointer from the right wing the play after that. He finished with seven points off the bench in the first quarter, but Kevin Martin and Kevin Love (11 points apiece) both outdid that for Minnesota.

Gerald Wallace’s deep well of kinetic energy continued to mark a positive for Boston. He scored 10 points in the first quarter on 4-5 shooting, slammed home a dunk in the second, and kept applying pressure – as he has all preseason – on both ends. To typify the type of effort Wallace has provided on a nightly basis, I present a scene from Saturday’s practice. The team was walking through dummy offense at the end of the session. Everybody else seemed to be operating at 60 percent speed, which was probably just about what Stevens expected. But Wallace sprinted through the exercise as if running barefoot through a pond of lava. Throughout preseason he has showcased a truly special talent: constant hustle. I’m still not sure he should fire so many 3-pointers, but otherwise his free-spirited play has been terrific. He finished with 16 points, three assists and two steals.

Green started the second half at shooting guard as Stevens tinkered with a similar lineup to the quasi-big one I mentioned earlier. I have wondered all preseason whether that lineup (with Green and Wallace on the perimeter) might actually represent Boston’s best starting unit, but it had rarely seen action prior to Sunday. The lineup could not duplicate its first-half lightning, but continued to flash the potential for fun. I would not mind more minutes for it in the future, especially if Green can continue attacking the paint as he did against Minnesota. In 24 minutes the small forward finished with seven free throw attempts, many of them hard-earned on drives to the basket. He also pounced on a third-quarter Corey Brewer fast break opportunity, swatting Brewer’s shot almost to half court. That was fun. Not so fun: Green missed all five of his second-half field goal attempts to finish 3-10 from the floor. Also not so fun: Green's second-half shooting was representative of his team's. Boston shot just 38.4 percent, including a cringe-worthy 3-26 from beyond the arc. Despite only 11 turnovers (nice), the Green Team could not show a powerful offense.

The defense wasn't phenomenal either. Especially in the first half, the Celtics tended to neglect Love and Martin (21 points) at the 3-point arc, sometimes leaving them wide open. During a halftime interview, Stevens said he did not like what he saw from his team’s defense – sometimes Boston defended with too much aggression, other times without enough. Despite the perimeter lapses (and the amount of points allowed), I felt like the Celtics showed improvement in certain areas.

Against a very talented frontcourt, Boston actually won the points in the paint battle easily, 50-38. The Celtics got smacked on the glass, 54-40, but as they say, Rome wasn’t built in a day (and when it finally was built, it probably had at least one legitimate center). I felt like the Celtics still did a better job compensating for lack of height on the inside, fronting the post and rotating from the weak side. But to succeed as a defense, they will need to do that while also refusing to allow open jump shots. (I can hear your reaction: “Thank you, Captain Obvious.”)

Jared Sullinger had his least impressive outing of the preseason, finishing with just four points and one rebound over 19 minutes. Stevens has implored Sullinger and Olynyk to keep shooting from the perimeter, but the former big man missed all three of his 3-point attempts, two of them quite badly, to drop his preseason 3PT percentage to 13.3. Perhaps, sadly, he’s not the next Steve Kerr. Also not the next Kerr: Brandon Bass, who nonetheless continued his solid play with 10 points and eight rebounds over 25 minutes.

With the regular season approaching, none of Boston’s shooting guards did much to improve their standing. Jordan Crawford (two points on 1-5 shooting), Courtney Lee (two points on 1-4 shooting) and MarShon Brooks (nine points on 4-14 shooting) finished a combined 6-23 from the field, which could be another good reason to keep trying Green at the position.

Love finished with 22 points and nine rebounds to lead Minnesota, but he did not win the fictional Bearded Athlete of the Weekend award. Well done, Shane Victorino. One swing of the bat was all it took.